A new drug administration system is promising to treat a rare and aggressive way of cancer that affects pregnant women and new mothers, and also has potential with other types of cancer.
Scientists led by Olena Taratula, a nanomedicine researcher at Oregon State University, have found a way to better guarantee the drug used to combat the disease reaches tumor cells without damaging healthy tissue.
The results of the study in the coriocarcinoma, which occurs in the United States at a rate of approximately four cases per 100,000 pregnancies, were published in Little science.
Usually, starting in the uterus, choriocarcinoma develops from cells that were part of the placenta. It can occur after a spontaneous abortion, abortion or ectopic pregnancy, one in which a fertilized egg is implanted in another place other than the uterus lining.
It can also occur after a molar pregnancy (without embryo forms, and the placental tissue grows abnormally) and even after a term pregnancy.
Taratula and collaborators, including the postdoctoral researcher of OSU, Babak Mamnoon and Maureen Baldwin, a doctor from the Oregon Health & Science University, designed a type of medication nanocarrier known as polyimersome to specifically go to a protein in the choriocarcinoma cells.
Poimersomas are hollow spheres that are synthetic versions of liposomes, lipid bags found in all living cells. The protein to which the researchers directed is the balancing nucleoside conveyor 1, usually abbreviated as EV-1, which is important for a range of cellular processes, including DNA and RNA synthesis.
In addition to being abundant in choriocarcinoma cells, UT-1 is found in the brain, heart, liver and other tissues in the body.
Mamnoon directed the research team in mouse model tests that confirmed that the attachment of Guanosina, a RNA construction block, allowed the polymersome to be administered more chemotherapy medicine methotrexate directly to tumor cells.
“Given the role of MTX as the main treatment for coriocarcinoma, the critical objective is now to improve its effectiveness, including faster response times, while minimizing side effects,” said Taratula, a professor associated at the Faculty of Pharmacy OSU.
Metotrexate or MTX, a common cancer drug, works when interfering with the ability of cells to use folic acid, essential to manufacture DNA and RNA. By blocking a certain enzyme, MTX frustrates the replication of cancer cells that are otherwise divided.
Common coriocarcinoma symptoms are pelvic pain and irregular vaginal bleeding. Cancer can spread rapidly through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, including bones, gastrointestinal tract, breasts, kidneys, liver, lungs, lymph nodes and brain.
“Because choriocarcinoma occurs in people who were recently pregnant, they often have young families, so we must make diagnosis and treatment easier and faster for them,” said Baldwin, a obstetrician/gynecologist in OHSU.
Most cases, especially if they catch early, are curable, with a five -year survival rate of approximately 87%.
“But MTX has a poor tumor specificity in standard applications and can cause side effects such as liver and renal toxicity,” Taratula said. “That is why we need a specially designed nanoplamp that guarantees the precise administration of medicines and release directly in tumors.”
In the mouse model, the approach reduced the size of the tumor by 95%, working approximately six times better than the carriers of non -directed medications. The result is a more effective treatment together with less or less side or less serious effects, and with more research, the same approach could be applied to the treatment of other cancers, Taratula said.
The financial support for the study of the College of Pharmacy of OSU, the Faculty of Medicine of OHSU, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Health and Human Development of Children’s Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
The collaborators included Ana Paula Mesquita Souza by Oregon State, Tetiana Korzun, K. Shitaljit Sharma, Oleh Taratula, Yoon Tae Goo, Prem singh, Vladislav Grigoriev and Aryan Lakhanpal.